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Goodall Jund at the 1K (aka “Why did I take the card out of my sideboard?”)

I’ve been enjoying the ChannelFireball Summer Series events, when I can make them, and this weekend my schedule was open enough to let me go to the Standard 1K on Saturday. I played Goodall Jund, and was doing reasonably well until I wasn’t. I had a great time, either way.
Click through to the extended entry for the list I ran and a round-by-round report.

As one commenter noted in my article last week, my sideboard was a little loose. Basically, I had a lot of “cute” one ofs, and as it happens, you don’t need most of them. Rather than waste time trying to hit a specific singleton as a solution to some perceived issue (for example, Tajuru Preserver against Eldrazi ramp), you really just want “more of the same,” where “the same” is whatever was winning you that match before.
With that in mind, here’s the list as I played it yesterday:Goodall Jund, 1K edition

This is a considerable “solidifying” of the sideboard from the article edition, which had five “one of” creatures. As it happens, I should have left one of those in. You’ll notice I also ditched the main deck Vithian Renegades, replacing them with the “oops, I just killed you” Anathemancer, and I swapped a Baloth in for the Bloodwitch, pushing the witch to the sideboard.
Overall, I was quite happy with the update, with the one notable exception that I”ll explore below.
Here’s how the tournament went:Round 1 versus Matt, playing Jund
The first real action in game one was Matt hitting me with a Blightning…and I happened to have the one main deck Baloth in hand, so I discarded Sarkhan the Mad and the Baloth and had a 4/4 before my third turn. I followed the Baloth with a Fauna Shaman and a Sparkmage…and soon after, had the Shaman engine online, leading to an overwhelming strike with Vengevine and pals, with a coup de grace from Anathamencer.
Sideboarding:
+3 Anathemancer
+3 Obstinate Baloth
-4 Cunning Sparkmage
-2 Slave of Bolas
I was expecting Matt to sideboard his Blightnings out, which he did, but a 4/4 and 4 life for four mana still seemed superior to some Sparkmages.
Game two played out more “Jund attrition style,” with my Baloth facing down his Bloodbraid and pals. We’d both sided in a bunch of Anathemancers, and the resulting impact really highlights the difference between the mana base in a traditional Jund build and in the Goodall build. His Anathemancers hit me for 2 damage and 1 damage (I think I got a Ravine killed before the second one), and mine hit him for 1 damage, then 3 damage, then another 3 damage.
I overwhelmed him with creatures (and Anathemancer damage!) again, putting me at 2-0, and 1-0 on the tournament.Round 2 versus Connor, playing UG Titan ramp
In this round I deployed my strategy of “opponent is nearly late to tournament and misregisters deck.” Connor was actually getting his last few cards as round one started, and as often happens when a decklist is scribbled out in a last-minute panic, some cards were left out. He’d registered a fifty-six card main deck, forgetting his Oracles, and took a game loss.
As we sat for an unsideboarded game two, Connor told me how he’d had to speed to get to the event. I’m never fond of these stories – if you’re going to miss the tournament, just miss the tournament. It happens. Losing in on the freeway and dying (or, you know, killing someone else) because you want to go play cards just doesn’t seem worthwhile. That’s not a specific dig on Connor – I think it’s pretty common among, well, people, to not want to miss things that are important to them. But the risk is high an the EV is not, so it’s not worthwhile.
Connor was on the play and led with a Lotus Cobra. I’d kept a decent hand, but one full of ETBT lands, and it meant that I hit Sparkmage a turn too late to keep him from Cobra-ing out a Frost Titan. This was followed by Rite of Replication on that Titan, and eventually another Titan, and I was done.
Sideboarding:
+4 Doom Blade
+4 Thought Hemorrhage
-2 Cunning Sparkmage
-1 Anathemancer
-1 Obstinate Baloth
In game three I kept a hand that had lands, Fauna Shaman, and Thought Hemorrhage. I led with some Fauna Shaman beats (no kidding), and when Connor tapped out for Oracle of Mul Daya, I Thought Hemorrhaged him for Frost Titan. I was expecting to see Primeval Titans in there as well, but instead found that I was essentially de-threating his deck, as he’d now have to kill me with Lotus Cobras and Oracles backed by Time Warps…or potentially Replicating my creatures.
I wasn’t concerned about that last risk, and Vengevined him to death soon after.Round 3 versus Jason, playing Jund
I like Jason. We’ve played a number of times, and he’s a great guy to play with (or against, however one wants to phrase that). I put him on Jund because that’s what he’s played for as long as it’s been a thing in Standard.
In game one, I made a valiant effort, but ended up buried under an excess of Thrinaxes. He out-attritioned me, and that was that.
Sideboarding:
+3 Anathemancer
+3 Obstinate Baloth
-4 Cunning Sparkmage
-2 Slave of Bolas
In game two, we played dueling Vengevines for a while, and Baloth kept me in things as he got ahead of me in the creature race. Jason eventually made an all-in alpha strike, knocking me from 14 to 3, with me just having a tapped Vengevine in play. The critical point, however, was that he autopiloted and said, “pump Leech.” I dutifully marked his life total from 10 to 8, and he then said, “Wait, did I just do that?” followed by, “Do you have another Vengevine?”
I did, and double Vengevine killed him.
He beat himself up a little, but managed to pull it out in a close game three. I got good value out of Anathemancers in this game, willingly tossing them in front of the Putrid Leech bus. In fact, other than a Verdant Catacombs and one late-game Vengevine strike, Anathemancers and Leeches did all my damage in this game. The life loss tally looks like this:
Crack Verdant Catacombs -1 (19)
Pump Leech to deal 4: -2 (17)
Anathemancer: -2 (15)
Pump Leech to survive fight with Anathemancer: -2 (13)
Anathemancer: -3 (10)
Pump Leech to survive fight with Anathamencer: -2 (8)
Vengevine attacks: -4 (4)
…and then he killed me. So sad. 🙂 I was one turn behind on my mana, or a Slave of Bolas on his Leech could have pulled things out for me. As it was, the game ended with me holding Slave, Sarkhan, Sarkhan, which is not the hotness if you’re stuck on four lands.
So it goes. My tiebreakers were awesome, and Jason was happy to dreamcrush in the later rounds, as he’s doing will in the overall Summer Series “match wins” race, which has its own prize structure.Round 4 versus Raphael, playing Polymorph
I was on the play this round, and opened to seven cards with no land. Hm. The mulligan to six revealed one land and a bunch of expensive cards. Hm. Five was exactly the same, minus a card. Hm.
So yeah, four.
My four-card opener was land, land, land, Sylvan Ranger. Good enough.
I knew what Raphael was playing, having watched him lock Connor out of a game by Polymorphing into Iona (on blue), and figured he’d have Emrakul as his main deck target, with Iona in the sideboard. My goal, then, was to deal as much damage as possible before Emrakul appeared, so I could simply swarm past him for the win. I figured an effective four-land opener (what with that Ranger) was good enough, since it meant I’d be able to cast any Bloodbraid or Vengevine I drew.
I Terminated an early Plant Token (seriously) to keep him off of Polymorph. I did it proactively because I wanted to be able to tap out for Bloodbraids, rather than waiting to try and undercut a Polymorph.
My deck helped me out by serving up a Bloodbraid, and I rushed with Bloodbraid and Sylvan Ranger (the Putrid Leech I cascaded into was Deprived). I eventually got to cast a Fauna Shaman as well, paying for Mana Leak, and just continued the elf-based beatdown, finally taking Raphael out before he could ever put together the right combination of token and Polymorph to make my life miserable.
Sideboarding:
+4 Thought Hemorrhage
-1 Anathemancer
-1 Obstinate Baloth
-2 others (I didn’t write it down, sorry about that)
I mulliganed to six on the draw in game two, but after that spectacular game one recovery, I felt okay about this.
This time around, Raphael drew all of his token generators, so I was crushing chump blockers with Vengevines for several turns in a row. My Thought Hemorrhage was countered, but he couldn’t find a Polymorph, and I finally hit a Pulse to kill his double Awakening Zone. With the flood of chump blockers finally stifled, I was able to swing in for the win.
At first, I thought Raphael was just mistakenly playing around Bolt or something, but it really was that he couldn’t find a Polymorph. This is one reason I don’t like the deck – it’s not particularly powerful if you aren’t hitting your key card.
Of course, given how long that second game took, Raphael was unsettling close to simply hardcasting Emrakul, which was something I was actually trying to keep in mind as I played against him. I can beat a Polymorphed Emrakul, but a hardcast one would have ended me.Round 5 versus Sam, playing Mythic
Sam is another regular opponent at CFB/Superstars events, and another great guy.
He was 4-0 with terrible breakers and had been paired down against me (3-1), so he asked if I was interested in a draw. I knew he was on Mythic, which always feels like a gamble, but I figured I wanted to go for it.
In game one, I hit the early Sparkmage, which is naturally pretty bad for Mythic. Sam couldn’t keep a mana dork on the board, and eventually scooped in the face of a clear inability for him to get into the game.
Sideboarding:
+4 Doom Blade
+1 Malakir Bloodwitch
-4 Putrid Leech
-1 Obstinate Baloth
It’s the straightforward anti-Mythic game plan – more removal, and that speedbump Bloodwitch.
In game two, I was a little slow in taking control, and took far too much damage early on, in large chunks. I was at seven life and thinking I might take control…when Sam dropped a Sovereigns and Conscripted me to death.
Sam re-offered the draw again, and after a mulligan to an unsettling five on the paly for game three, I took the offer. We signed off on the ID, handed the slip in, then played the game out, and I lost horrendously.
This put me at 3-1-1, which meant I had to win the final round, but was also felt better than being stomped down to 3-2 and probably out. If I won the next round, I’d be on a quirky 13 points, and beat all the 4-2s.Round 6 versus Quan playing Overrun
You know the one card I regret removing from my sideboard for this tournament?
This guy:
In game one, I was killed by an Overwhelming Stampede powered by a powered-up Mul Daya Channelers. When everyone receives +5 and Trample, it’s a problem.
Sideboarding:
+4 Doom Blade
+3 Obstinate Baloth
-4 Putrid Leech
-1 Anathemancer
-2 Sarkhan the Mad
I held out longer this time, but eventually had to face down two waves of Wolves generated by multi-kicked Wolfbriar Elementals.
The thing is…I had an active Fauna Shaman. Even with those Wolves having +1/+1 tokens from Oran-Rief, I could have Shamaned up the Hellion, then dropped it, devouring some three or so creatures on my board, killing all the Wolves and leaving me with a 6/6 Hellion to tussle with his solitary 5/5 Wolfbriar (I’d Terminated the other one).
Sigh. I may dislike losing to mono-green overrun decks in general, but I really do think I was overzealous in cutting Caldera Hellion from my sideboard. When I play Goodall Jund again, the Hellion is back in.
Overall, I had a great time, and hung out for a while afterward playing some non-tournament games against Paul (who I played at the last 1K, running Naya) and Mason (also Naya). Mason and I had two ridiculous games in a row, with packed, weirdly stalemated boards that eventually tipped one way or the other, giving us one game each.
If I can make the 5K next weekend, I’ll go. We’ll see.